Coffee Doesn't Stunt Your Growth
by ally-kat312
Summary: Craig's back in South Park after leaving as soon as high school let out, and he's stopped in a local coffee shop for shelter from the snow. Inside is someone he didn't remember being quite so tall...


(A/N: What's this?! A fanfic, after a year of no fanfics and saying that I just couldn't write fanfictions anymore since South Park was the only fandom I ever saw fit to have fanfics and it's not really my main fandom anymore? Yes indeed, here is a brand new fanfic, hot off the press. Or, more mildly warm. My ex really wanted me to write her something when I told her about the idea of tol Tweek so… enjoy! Also, I may go and update stuff soon. When I'm not doing college stuff. So look forward to that!)

I didn't want to come back here. I never do. But somehow, my baby sister dragged my ass back to this redneck trash town. She said I had to come to our stupid family reunion. Give my relatives a new kid to pick on for making "bad life choices". I kinda understood why she was frustrated. I mean, she was dating three people at once and my parents drew the line at two(not one for some dumb reason). I really didn't care who Ruby was dating. Especially since one of the people was McCormick's sister and I didn't hate him. He might be ok to catch up with. Him and one other person.

I paused in my walking and tried to remember the last time I had seen Tweek. I had left town right after high school ended to try and find myself or some shit like that. Really, I had just wanted out of South Park. But before school got out, I had been hanging out with Tweek alone, doing something. He was the person I was closest to. Other than Clyde, Tweek was my go-to. Probably over Clyde actually. Or…

Maybe just in a different way from Clyde. I remembered how once when we were younger, I had kissed Tweek while playing Truth or Dare. Well, I was playing with myself. Silently. In my head. I dared myself to kiss him and so I did. I told him not to talk about that ever again after that. He had just kinda sat there, shaking, silent. He had looked so small then. I mean, he was smaller than me anyways so it wasn't hard. I smiled a bit to myself. I wonder if he was still half a head shorter than me? His head had always fit nicely in the crook of my neck if he calmed down enough to rest it there. As much as I wanted to catch up with him, I didn't want to stay here any longer than necessary.

As expected, the family reunion was just as shitty as I thought it would be. Ruby brought all four of her partners- Karen, Ike, and that kid who used to be goth, Firkle. They were awkward. Red was there with Lola, making out on the couch basically the entire time. My parents and aunt and uncle interrogated me on why I had never gone to college or kept in contact with them. My mom cooked and everything was overdone and some of it was burnt. Everyone flipped off everyone the entire time. Yep. Just as crappy as I remembered everything. To make matters worse, I had apparently parked illegally outside my own childhood home so my car was towed and I had to go get it. And no one in my family wanted to drive me. I flipped everyone off as I left. That was more than enough fucking family time for the next decade at least.

It was snowing when I left and only seemed to get worse the farther I walked into town. I shivered and tried to clutch my coat tighter around me, but it didn't help. I had to get inside somewhere. I ducked into a cafe next to me and shook off the snow. Ugh. I fucking hate snow. Another reason I left this town. I walked up to the counter, still dusting myself off.

"Hey, yeah, I'll just take a coffee. Small or whatever, I guess," I said.

"W-Will that be all?" A voice stammered. I stopped patting powder off me and looked up at the person at the counter and all I could think in the moment was-

Holy shit.

He's gotten so TALL.

"Tweek," I said, my deadpan replaced with surprise. He looked at me, seemingly confused for a second, but then it clicked.

"Craig! Oh Jesus, I-I couldn't tell it was you at first! Y-You look so- nngh- different!" He grinned. I had to tilt my head up to make eye contact with him. He was easily half a foot taller than me now, probably more.

"Yeah, I'm not the only one," I said.

"B-But will th-that really be all?" Tweek asked again. "The small c-coffee?"

"And you," I said, then quickly corrected myself seeing Tweek tense up, probably about to have a freak out. "I mean, a conversation. With you. I'm leaving once all this snow stops."

"I-I'll go ask my dad!" Tweek said. "Oh, a-and that'll be $5.00!" He ran off to the back. I groaned silently. Five fucking dollars for a small coffee? Didn't think this dump would ever be able to charge that much. I put a bill on the counter anyways. I saw the different cup sizes and got the smallest cup and the tallest one and put them side by side. If I drew eyes on them, they could be me and Tweek. What had happened? I didn't tell anyone, but I used to love having him smaller than me. It made him fit in my arms whenever I got to hold him. I felt my face heat up thinking about it. It wasn't like I hadn't moved on from Tweek. There'd been people here and there along the road. No one at the moment and no one that lasted very long but…

"He says I can!" Tweek broke me out of my thoughts, coming back from a door marked "Employees Only". I nodded and pushed the bill I put down to him. I needed to act casual and not think about past Tweek. Smaller Tweek. I bet he was dating someone now. Or maybe he hated me for leaving and never coming back. I wouldn't blame him if that were the case. I bet Clyde thought that.

Tweek sat down at a table with him and pushed my small coffee towards me. He had a huge mug full of coffee with him. It was somehow bigger than the last personal mug I had seen him with. I don't know how anyone could continue functioning with that much coffee in one sitting.

"S-So what brings you back?" Tweek asked, his back arched a little over the table. I leaned forward to take my cup.

"Family thing Ruby talked me into coming to," I shrugged. "Miserable."

"O-Oh," Tweek said. "I was always k-kinda scared by your family."

"I know Tweek."

"Oh." He sipped quickly at his coffee, looking down. I grimaced. The air between us was so awkward. I couldn't blame him though. I was the one who had been away for so long. I didn't even know what we could talk about though. Video games we used to play? Old friends? It was all meaningless BS. We had never talked much before anyways. Just sat together, silently comfortable with one another. Conversations stressed Tweek out and I could never care about something long enough to talk about it for more than a few minutes. Silence between us had never been uncomfortable. Embarrassing, yes. I needed something to break the ice.

"Hey, remember when the girls shipped us?" I asked.

"H-Huh?" Tweek's mind had wandered.

"Back in elementary school. The girls and everyone in town thought we were a couple and we had to pretend to be one until they all lost interest." Tweek gave a small smile and laughed.

"Y-Yeah. That was- GAH!- really stressful! Everyone expected s-so much from us man! At least it was y-you though. You helped- nngh- make it ok." He twitched a little and drank more coffee.

"Your hands were always really sweaty," I said. "And clammy."

"Y-You had the tightest unnecessary grip. And cold hands."

"I still have cold hands." I reached across and took one of his hands in mine and he jumped in surprise. I caught a blush on his face.

"Jesus, they re-really are cold. Let go." He pulled back his hand. I could feel the air growing awkward again.

"As much as I hated all the drama that thing brought, I think it was good." I swirled the coffee in my cup around. I didn't want to drink what Tweak Bros. was putting out. Benefits of knowing the owners son- I knew exactly what the hell went into everything. I never touched the coffee again after I learned what it was.

"Why?" Tweek asked.

"Well, I mean, before that, you and I… we'd kinda grown apart," I shrugged. "We used to hang out more but then stopped for some reason. And then we had to hang out on 'dates' and shit like that, just the two of us. And I remembered how much I liked you." I had been avoiding staring at Tweek as I had been speaking, but when I looked back at him, I saw him sitting perfectly still. He was staring at me, either awestruck or dumbstruck. His eyes were locked so tightly with mine that I could see the specks of green in brown, framed by dirty blonde lashed. I'd forgotten how much I loved his eyes. It was even easier to see them with him sitting up straight, taller than me. They had an effect that could draw me up to him the longer I stared. I could feel myself starting to blush and my thoughts wander. I fidgeted.

"Stop staring at me man," I muttered. Tweek had a mini spazz at the broken silence.

"GAH! Jesus, s-sorry Craig! Complete coincidence!" He made a point to look at everything except me. I smiled and chuckled softly, which made him stop and stare at me again. I didn't laugh often, let alone smile. He looked so confused, like a lost puppy.

"You're cute." I spoke before I really processed the words. Both of us looked shocked at the same time.

"Wh-What did you-"

"I said you're tall. You're tall. You're so… so goddamn tall now." I grit my teeth and kicked myself. "Shit. I thought coffee was supposed to stunt your growth."

"Uh… I-I guess not?" Tweek fidgeted. "Craig, d-do you remember-"

"Does anyone else still live here?" I asked, cutting him off. I was done reminiscing about the two of us. At least, I didn't want to think any more about what I knew Tweek was about to ask.

We managed to keep talking for another few hours. I asked about him and he asked about me. Neither of us had interesting things to say. For a while, we sat in the comfortable silence that I had missed. I spent that time studying Tweek while he drank coffee. He had gotten more than just taller. He was skinny, probably from consuming mostly just coffee, and he had crazy bags under his eyes. His hair was as unkempt as ever and he had a few freckles on his nose. Besides that, though, he had the face and body of someone who was very sad. He hunched in on himself and I could see lines of wrinkles from worry. Tweek was constantly nervous, but he had never really been upset. Even if he wasn't smaller than me, I still wanted to wrap him in a hug and protect him from all the assholes he came across. Not that I'd ever tell him that. I'd just do it. After a long time, Tweek's dad came over to us.

"Ok Tweek, that's enough catching up. Back to work with you."

"C-Can't I walk him outside at least?" Tweek asked.

"It's freezing out there, son. You'll probably die." Tweek jumped in fear at that, but shook his head.

"I-I'm gonna- GAH!- do it anyway!" He stood and I did too. He really was so much taller than me. I walked with him to the door. It was still snowing out, but very lightly. Which is basically not at all here. We stepped outside and Tweek shivered.

"Oh Jesus, i-it really is c-co-cold out here!" he said. I was bundled up enough so all I did was shrug. Tweek smiled to me.

"I-It was nice. Seeing you again, before you go." He looked off to side sadly. Snowflakes were catching on his eyelashes.

"… hey Tweek."

"Yeah Craig?"

"Could you bend a little closer?"

"L-Like this?" He leaned down, almost close enough. I reached up and lifted up on my toes, closing the gap between our faces and kissing him. He let out a little squeak of surprise and I pulled away.

"Are you single?" I asked. He nodded, probably too shocked to actually speak. I pulled the receipt for my coffee out of my pocket.

"Pen?" I held out my hand and he handed me one tucked in his Tweak Bros. apron. I scribbled my number on the receipt and handed it to him. He took it, stared at it, then stared at me. I made a little cellphone motion with my hand. He nodded. I started walking away. I still needed to get my car back after all. I could hear Tweek stuttering behind me, trying to form words. I turned back to him.

"By the way, Tweek," I called. "I do remember it." He knew exactly what I meant and his face broke into a grin. I couldn't help but grin back. Just because I hated this town doesn't mean I hated everyone in it. I went back to walking away, but unlike before, that was the exact opposite of what I was really doing.


End file.
